Mary Halvorson Interview and Village Vanguard Preview

Source: Village Voice.

On July 18, guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson will bring her octet to the Village Vanguard for six nights: twelve performances, two sets a night. It’s a major showcase that will give Halvorson and her band the chance to refine material from their remarkable 2016 album, Away With You, perform new work, and possibly bring themselves into wider view — a “mainstreaming gig,” as one acquaintance put it. This past April, when I sat down with her at a coffee shop in Gowanus, Halvorson had a simpler task in mind. “If you want to reach me, can you just email?” she asked. “If you text, I’m not going to see it. I’m practicing.” When I asked what that entailed, she said, “Playing every day. That’s what I am trying to do this year, get better at the guitar. I want to be able to actualize anything I hear in my head.”